It is now official. In any compilation of English national traits – stiff upper lip, addiction to marmalade and fondness of animals – you can now add penalty shootout simpletons.

England crashed out of the Women’s World Cup and while skipper Faye White thumped the decisive penalty against the bar it was Chelsea’s Claire Rafferty with her dreadful impression of Jonny Wilkinson’s crablike side-on approach and subsequent scuffed shot horribly wide that will be remembered as the defining moment.

You can now expect her to be adopted and comforted by the Euro 96 chief culprit Gareth Southgate and for Pizza Hut to offer her a series of commercials.

In truth, as hard as England ladies battled, France deserved to win and looked far fitter, technically more astute and more tactically aware than our ladies on the night.

The tournament has been a great triumph for Germany. Organised with typical efficiency and excellent marketing the stadiums have been full of paying customers who have been thrilled by some amazing drama of last-minute goals and breathtaking action.

Aided and abetted by some woeful refereeing we have seen Brazilian play-acting interspersed with individual sublimity, cynical tackling from the hosts, conveyer belt distribution from the Japanese and some wonderfully inventive eye make-up from the US goalkeeper.

The sad part is, I could never imagine the success of the tournament being repeated if ever held in this country as the majority of our football supporters have little regard or respect for the women’s game and treat it as a politically-correct sideshow.

England’s women cricketers, however, have attained credibility by becoming the best team in the world and achieved that status in no small part through the redoubtable batting performances of Berkshire’s Claire Taylor who, at 35, has announced her retirement from international duty.

I count myself fortunate then to have seen one of her last knocks at Derby a couple of weeks back against New Zealand, which encapsulated her value to the team.

Going in two early wickets down with the ball seaming around, she steadied the ship with some stout and watchful defence before accelerating to what transpired to be a match-winning half-century with some delightful stroke-play.

In 2009 she became the only woman to be voted the Wisden Cricketer of the Year, which to some misguided ancient and chauvinistic purists was wrongly declared to be a publicity stunt.

Claire earned the award on merit alone and still holds the highest-ever score of 156 by man or woman in an ODI at Lord’s. England have some wonderfully talented batters in their ranks but will find Claire a difficult act to follow.

I make no secret of often preferring to watch the enthusiasm, style and flair of our England ladies as opposed to their often bad-tempered and erratic male counterparts.

They display camaraderie and togetherness at all times, unlike the blokes who – when conditions don’t suit their one-dimensional gameplan – bicker, abuse umpires and appear disinterested.

The women have just the one captain – natural leader and strategist Charlotte Edwards – for all forms of the game as opposed to the three different individuals the men insist upon.

I do, however, see troubled times ahead. Charlotte’s knees have always had an attractive quality but now are the object of some attentive concern.

Wear and tear is preventing speedy running between the wickets and the stealing of quick singles, which are vital in the shorter versions of the game, and these creaky joints are causing debate as to her future participation.